Mail-carrier box.



No..776,663. v PATEN TED DEC. 6, 1904. P. J. JONSRUD & M. M. SKYRUD.

MAIL CARRIER BOX.

APPLIOATION FILED APR. 21. 1904.

N0 MODEL. 6

ltness s I nventors, g R J $6 7 I l I Httomegs UNITED STATES Patented December 6, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

PETER J. JONSRUD AND MADS M. SKYRUD, OF BLAIR, \VISCONSIN.

MAIL-CARRIER Box.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 776,663, dated December 6, 1904.

Application filed April 21, 1904.

To (,LZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that we, PETER J. J ONSRUD and MADs M. SKYRUD, citizens of the United States, residing at Blair, in the county of Trempealeau and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Mail-Carrier Box, of which the following is a specification,

This invention relates to mail-pouches, and has for its object to provide an improved device of this character for the use of lettercarriers on rural free-delivery routes, and it will of course be understood that it is capable of use in cities and towns.

An important object of the invention is to provide for maintaining the mail-matter separated into groups or bundles according to the destination thereof and to provide for readily removing the individual groups or bundles from the pouch for delivery to a house or to a mail-box on a rural route.

WVith these and other objects in view the present invention consists in the combination and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described, shown in the accompanying drawings, and. particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being un derstood that changes in the form, proportion, size, and minor details may be made within the scope of the claims without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the device of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view thereof. Fig. 3 is adetail view of one of the pocketcontrolling slides. Fig. 4 is a detail view of one of the guide-bars.

Like characters of reference designate corresponding parts in each and every figure of the drawings.

While the present device has been termed a pouch and may be formed of leather or other flexible material, it is preferred to have the body or casing 1 in the nature of a metallic box oblong in form and of a depth to receive the longest standard envelop in an upright position and of a width to loosely receive the widest standard envelop. The open top of this box is closed by means of a hinged Serial No. 204,301. (No model.

lid or cover 2, which has a slotted hasp 3, hinged to the free edge thereof and capable of embracing a looped keeper4 upon the side of the box, there being a suitable handle 5 upon the top of the lid or cover for convenience in carrying the device. The looped keeper 4 permits of the use of a suitable padlock when it is desired to lock the lid of the box. Within the box and extending longitudinally thereof at opposite sides are corresponding guideways, each formed by an up standing flange 6 and a horizontal flange 7, spaced above the upright flange to form a slot between the two flanges. In the embodiment of the invention shown in the accompanying drawings the upstanding flange 6 is the upper edge of the lower and greater portion of the box, and the horizontal flange 7 is carried by the laterally-enlarged upper portion 1 of the box, thereby producing a substantially L-shaped guide-slot. As bestindicated in Fig. 1 of the drawings, it will be noted that one end of the guideway is closed by the adjacent end of the box or pouch, while the opposite end of the guideway is terminated short of the other end of the box and open for the introduction of slidable guide members, as will now be described. .A plurality of guide members 8 have their ends mounted to slide in the respective guideways, each of said members, as shown in Fig. 4c, consisting of a rod or bar having its ends bent to form terminal loops 9, with the outer ends of the loops bent downwardly to form pendent cars or projections 10, which engage back of the upstanding flanges 6, so as to prevent endwise displacement of the guide-rods. Cooperating with each guide-rod is an upstanding slide' 11, in the form of a rectangular wire frame, the opposite upright sides of which pass through the slots or openings formed by the loops 9 of the guide-rod and are capable of sliding vertically therethrough. Adjacent the upper end of the frame of the slide is a cross-bar 12, carried by the opposite sides of the frame and located between the top of the latter and the guide-rod.

A continuous web 13 of any suitable fabric or flexible material, of a width approximating that of the interior of the box,is looped over the guide-bars 8 and secured thereto in any suitable manneras, for instance, by stitching the adjacent portions of the web below and close to the under sides of the guide-rods, whereby the looped portions of the web form elastic pockets, which are open at their upper ends for the reception of mail-matter. From each guide-rod the web extends upwardly and is looped loosely over the crossbar 12 of the adjacent vertically-movable slide. from which the web extends downwardly and is looped beneath the lower end of the slide and thence upwardly to the next guide-rod. By this arrangement when the slide is drawn upwardly the bottom of the adjacent pocket will be elevated with the bottom of the slide. whereby such letters or other matter as may be contained in the pockets will be elevated therewith into position for convenient reach at the open top of the box. hen the slide is returned, the bottom of the pocket is also drawn down into the box to its normal position. By reason of the fact that the guiderods 8 are slidable longitudinally of the box the depth of each pocket may be varied con siderably, so as to receive asingle letter or a plurality of letters without interfering with any of the other pockets.

Upon the top of each pocket-controlling slide 11 there is a card-holder consisting of a metallic plate or back 14 rigidly secured to the frame and provided with upstanding inwardly-directed overhanging flanges 15,forming an open-ended slot or seat for the reception of a card 16, bearing the name of the party or the place to which the letters in the adjacent pocket are to be delivered. These cards are removable through the ends of the holders, and therefore may be replaced whenever desired.

In using the present device the letters and other mail-matter are made up into bundles according to their destinations and the bundles are then placed in their corresponding pockets, so that when the carrier reaches any destination the bundle of mail-matter there' for may be readily obtained by raising the controlling-slide which bears the card of that particular destination, so as to bring the bundle above the top of the box or pouch in position to be conveniently removed from the pocket without interfering with the mailmatter in any of the other pockets.

By having each pocket independent of the other the bundles of mail-matter are effectually maintained separated and no confusion arises in obtaining the desired bundle of mail, and the destination of each bundle may be readily determined by reference to the cards carried by the pocket-controlling slides.

Having thus described the construction and operation of our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. A mail-pouch having a plurality of mailreceiving pockets which are capable of being individually drawn outwardly to give access to the mail-matter therein.

2. A mail-pouch having a plurality of flexible mail-receiving pockets, one side of each pocket capable of being drawn outwardly independently of the other pockets to force the mail-matter out of the pocket.

3. A mail-pouch having a flexible pocket, and a slide connected to one side of the pocket for drawing the same outwardly.

A. A mail-pouch having a flexible pocket, and a pocket-controlling slide, one side of the pocket being looped over an outer portion of the slide and beneath an inner portion thereof, whereby said side of the pocket will be moved outwardly and inwardly during corresponding movements of the slide.

5. A mailpouch having a plurality of spaced cross-bars, a flexible web looped across the bars to form a plurality of flexible pockets, and means for individually drawing the pockets outwardly to give access to the matter therein. 7

6. A mail-pouch having a series of crossbars, a flexible web looped across the bars to form pockets, and slides carried by the pouch and connected to the respective pockets for drawing the same outwardly.

7. A mail-pouch having a series of crossbars, a flexible web looped across the bars to form a plurality of pockets, and slides carried by the crossbars and engaging the respective pockets to draw the same outwardly.

8. A mail-pouch having a series of crossbars provided with opposite guide-openings, slides having their opposite sides Working in the guide-openings of the cross-bars. and a flexible web looped over the cross-bars to form pockets and engaged with the slides to be drawn outwardly therewith.

9. A mail-pouch having a, series of crossbars slidable horizontally thereon, a flexible web looped over the cross-bars to form pockets, and controlling-slides connected to the pockets and movable substantially at right angles to the direction of movement of the cross-bars.

10. A mail-pouch having opposite internal guideways, cross-bars having their terminals slidably mounted in the guideways, a flexible web looped over the cross-bars to form pockets, and controlling-slides carried by the crossbars and connected to the pockets.

11. A mail-pouch having opposite internal guideways provided with corresponding entrance-openings, cross-bars having their ends slidably mounted in the guideways and insertible and removable through the entranceopenings thereof, a flexible web looped over the cross-bars to form pockets, and controllingslides carried by the cross-bars and connected to the pockets for drawing the same outwardly.

12. A mail-pouch having opposite internal guideways, cross-bars having their ends slid- I ably mounted in said guideways and provided with openings located between the guideways, a flexible web looped over the cross-bars to form pockets, and. pocket-controlling slides, each slide consisting of a frame having opposite sides slidable in the openings of the adjacent cross-bars and provided with a crossbar adjacent its upper end, the web being looped over the cross-bar of the slide and beneath the lower end of the slide.

13. A mail-pouch having opposite guide- Ways, each guideway consisting of an upstanding flange spaced from the adjacent side oi. the pouch and a horizontal flange overhanging the upstanding flange, a series of guidebars having their ends slidahly supported in the gnideways and provided with terminal 

